ORLANDO, FLA – With less than a minute to go in overtime Thursday night, Orlando Solar Bears forward Chris LeBlanc had the puck on his stick heading through center ice. He took a look to his right and saw teammate Colby McAuley streaking up the wing. It was at that moment that LeBlanc made the decision to send the puck over to McAuley.
It turned out the be the right choice.
Orlando Solar Bears forward Colby McAuley (85, black) battles for the puck with Atlanta’s Hugo Roy in front of goalie Sean Bonar (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
McAuley netted his 14th goal of the season with 27 seconds remaining in the five minute extra period to give Orlando (40-25-4-1, 85 points) a come-from-behind 3-2 victory over the Atlanta Gladiators (31-28-8-3, 73 points) in front of an annouced crowd of 5,281 at the Amway Center. LeBlanc had a goal in addition to his helper on the winner and Alexander Kuqali added his second of the season in support of goalie Connor Ingram who stopped 22 of 24 shots to record his fourth straight victory.
The game-winning sequence actually began when Ingram made a save on Atlanta’s Matt Lane. LeBlanc grabbed the rebound and headed toward the neutral zone. Once McAuley joined in the rush, LeBlanc pushed the puck to his teammate and continued toward the net. With a path clearing in front of him. McAuley cut through the faceoff circle to the left of Gladiators netminder Sean Bonar to the slot. Once there, McAuley sent a frozen rope of a shot into the upper right part of the net to close out the contest.
“I just used my speed and I have good awareness out there so I kinda can see the play,” McAuley said. “I saw Blancky [LeBlanc] was going to the net and I had a chance to cut to the middle and put it top right.”
The fact that the game ended up going to overtime was a testament to the will of Bonar, who played for the Solar Bears during the 2014-15 season, and the perseverance of the Orlando team which has made a statement with a number of comeback wins – the most recent being last Saturday when it wiped a two goal deficit after two periods to down South Carolina and lock up a spot in the upcoming 2019 ECHL Kelly Cup playoffs.
Bonar was certainly the star of the first period. From the opening faceoff, he was under the gun from a Solar Bears offense that was looking to roar out of the gate. From a LeBlanc early chance less than thirty seconds in to a quick flurry of four shots in 38 seconds near the middle of the frame, Bonar was quick, nimble and looking determined to steal two points from his former team.
“We knew they [Atlanta] were going to come out hard [because] they’re battling for a playoff spot,” LeBlanc said.
At the other end, Ingram was back in his groove, gobbling up shot after shot. That is until a Gladiators power play bore fruit 11:40 into the opening stanza. By standards it was not a traditional play because Joel Messner’s initial shot from the point missed the net but it took a fortunate bounce out to the left of the cage where Justin MacDonald redirected it to Nolan LaPorte at the top of the crease. In the blink of an eye, LaPorte buried it in the back of the net for his 18th of the season.
The Solar Bears bad luck continued a little under four minutes later when Atlanta again proved it had mastered its geometry lessons. Defenseman Jake Flegel ripped a shot at the net that missed by a wide margin. Again the Gladiators got a perfect bounce off the back boards as the puck caromed out the the faceoff circle to the goalie’s right. Brett McKenzie was in the right place to nail a one-timer past a diving Ingram for his 15th and a 2-0 lead that the visitors took to the first intermission.
Solar Bears forward Shaquille Merasty (10, black) and Atlanta’s Derek Nesbitt tangle at center ice during Thursday’s first period (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
It might have been a moment where Solar Bears Head Coach and General Manager Drake Berehowsky could have changed things up. Instead, he stayed the course and let the players recall just how they’ve handled situations like they were facing in the past.
“I think our guys are learning right now that they know they right way to play to win games and on most nights if you play the right way you’ll win,” Berehowsky said. “We just kept sticking to it like you said and we were fortunate to get the points.”
It took a bit more time than the fans in the stands would have liked, especially when the Solar Bears faced killing off 1:08 of a five-on-three man advantage handed to the Gladiators by overlapping Orlando penalties. The worry that anyone might have felt was not neccessary as Orlando’s penalty killers held Atlanta without a shot on the two man and subsequent five-on-four situation.
Following a run-in between McAuley and Bonar during another Solar Bears PK (McAuley carried the puck to the net and bumped Bonar out of the crease, causing a set of matching roughing minors), Orlando went on the power play with 3:10 remaining in the second. This time around, the puck movement was crisp and it led to Mike Monfredo threading a pass to Alexei Lipanov in the faceoff circle to Bonar’s right. The goalie made the stop on Lipanov’s shot but LeBlanc swooped in to collect the rebound and sent it in for his 10th of the year to cut the deficit to 2-1 after forty minutes of play.
“It was nice to get that one. The power play was moving it pretty well tonight so it was good,” LeBlanc said about his very important goal. “It was a good bounce to get and I was happy to get it past him.”
LeBlanc’s tally squarely put the game’s momentum in the hands of the home team and they took full advantage of it. Early in the third period, the Solar Bears mounted a counter attack with Kuqali right in the middle of it. He sent the puck ahead to Mitch Hults who carried it into the top of the circle to Bonar’s right. Kuqali skated in behind, setting himself up for a perfect drop pass from Hults that sent the defenseman in with room to spare. Kuqali took a couple more strides before letting loose with a shot just under the crossbar and over Bonar’s right (short side) shoulder for his second of the year and a tie score.
“I saw that my partner Akim (Aliu) he got the net and we started up the ice. Like Drake talks about he wants us [moving] as a five-man unit, whether it’s coming back in our [defensive] zone or moving up [ice]. I was on the far side. I had ice and I figured I’d get up and present my stick and he gave it to me,” Kuqali said. “The other guys were coming up and I saw Hultsy in the middle so I figured I’d give it to him – he’s a little bit quicker than I am. I dished it to him and just kept following up the play. I figured hey why not, I’ve got the momentum [so] just keep going. I called for it and he dropped it to me. Drake yells at us a lot to get our shots on net and I saw a little space. I took a shot and it went in and the rest is history. The boys took care of business after that.”
Solar Bears forward Jackson Playfair (18, black) fights for position with Atlanta’s Zach Malatesta in front of goalie Sean Bonar during Thursday’s game at the Amway Center (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
Ingram and Bonar (35 saves) took care of things down the stretch as each one made save after save. Ingram’s best during the final fifteen minutes of regulation came when he stoned McKenzie who got in alone. Not to be outdone, Bonar later did the splits and used his glove hand to commit robbery on LeBlanc with six minutes left to go. Despite an 11-7 shots advantage in the final twenty minutes, the Solar Bears could not find the winner and the teams headed off to the extra period.
Twice during the overtime, the Solar Bears had odd man rushes but failed to connect. At the other end, Ingram was forced to make a big save on MacDonald with 1:26 to go to keep the contest going. That all led to Ingram stopping Lane, setting off the winning sequence that ended in McAuley’s winner.
Asked about the resilience the Solar Bears have been showing, McAuley indicated that although the ability to come back is nice but that it isn’t the position that the team needs to be in.
“We’re trying to have a good push going into the playoffs. We don’t want to be on a losing streak here,” McAuley said. “Like I said before, we can’t be down two goals at the start of periods or the start of games. We’ve just got to clean up in those areas and keep going forward into the playoffs.”
With two games remaining – Friday night in Estero against Florida and Sunday back home against Jacksonville – on the schedule, Berehowsky said he was unsure of how he would shape the lineups for those two games before having to have a playoff roster set to submit to the league on Monday.
“I’m not sure yet. We haven’t made a decision yet on anything,” Berehowsky said. “We were talking about that in the room. We’ll know in the morning what’s going on.”
Orlando defenseman Cody Donaghey (44, black) keeps an eye on Atlanta’s Nolan LaPorte as goalie Connor Ingram looks for the puck (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina / Orlando Solar Bears)
Notes: Final shots were 38-24 in favor of Orlando… The Solar Bears and Gladiators both went 1-for-4 on the power play in the game… Orlando’s current four-game winning matched it longest of the season, recorded between February 23rd and March 1st… The Solar Bears 85 points is the franchise’s second-highest regular season point total, only trailing the 91 points recorded during the 2013-14 season… Orlando reached 40 wins for just the second time since joining the ECHL in 2012-13. The franchise’s high water mark is 43 wins, also set during the 2013-14 campaign… The victory was the team’s eighth when trailing after two periods, best in the league in 2018-19. It was also the eighth time the Solar Bears have triumphed in overtime, tops in the Eastern conference and tied with Fort Wayne, Kalamazoo and Idaho for most in the entire league… Orlando finished its season series with Atlanta with a 6-3-0-0 record… In roster news, the Solar Bears signed forward Parker AuCoin, formerly of the WHL’s Tri-City Americans, to a contract while Aliu, who was released on Tuesday, was resigned on Thursday. Both played in Thursday night’s game… Friday’s game in Estero is set for a 7:30 p.m. start while Sunday’s home finale will drop the puck at 3 p.m.
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